Month: March 2023

Who am I? That feels like a trick question. There’s probably a big difference between who I think I am, who everyone else thinks I am. Let’s lay down the facts. I’m Preston, I’m thirty, I’m here because I love design. I want to become a branding specialist for small local business’s and eventually the creative director for Nike. Why do I want to do that? Because there’s no better feeling for me than making that one change in your design that makes it work. That feeling you get when something you created looks fucking awesome, is fucking awesome. I want to take a brand’s vision, mission, tone, and feel, and turn it into something tangible. Something that is visually stimulating and powerful. I want to help their business make money and make myself some money as well. The bottom line is I want to make a living doing something I love, and this is what I chose.

Where do I want to go? Everywhere. Mainly the woods and high alpine environments. I want a job that gives me the flexibility to travel when I want, and afford a 4×4 camper. Then I want to work from that camper in beautiful natural places. I want to be able to afford a house too. Right now seems like a long shot but who knows where I’ll be in ten. I’ll be forty, hopefully still doing what I love, and hopefully reaching heights I never thought possible.

I was first introduced to Cut on social media years ago when I saw “Grandma’s smoking weed for the first time” on instagram (still probably my favorite Cut video). Last week I saw a few more examples of their work when Brooke played those two cringe-worthy videos. I was most moved by the one where strangers rated eachother to their face. This one made me feel really uncomfortable. I’m worried that hearing negative rankings will stick with those individuals for the rest of their lives. In the end, it seemed like the moral of the story they were trying to teach was that beauty is subjective and that everyone is beautiful in their own way. This was completely different than what I actually took away from watching the video. What the exercise showed me was the opposite, that beauty is objective. The same people were generally ranked the same by all participants across the board, particularly the long haired guy deemed “unattractive” and the tall short hair girl that was widely accepted as the most attractive in the bunch. I just felt bad for the people involved that got ranked lowest in the line-up. I think this sort of activity could potentially be traumatizing and really hurt their self-esteem. I didn’t like it at all.

While that video showed that beauty is objective and that beauty standards are societal, I want to imagine a video activity that can highlight the facts that looks aren’t the most important thing. My activity would involve 10 strangers, mixed gender. They would hear a 30 second audio clip of each contestant describing themselves, including their interests, life views, and self reported flaws. Contestants would then choose who they want to go on a date with based on hearing their voice only, without seeing what they look like. Once a partner is selected, they would actually go on a date and see how well they connected. Once the date is completed, both contestants would be asked how the date went and if they would go on a second date with the person or not. I think this would be a good test to see if personality is more important when choosing a partner than physical appearance.

I was unable to attend any live metaverse events this week but I have participated in the metaverse before buying NFT’s. I found the metaverse fascinating and perplexing since I first learned a little bit about it. What compels people to spend thousands of dollars on pixelated pictures of animals? The more I learned about it, the maire it made sense. NFT’s are essentially like virtual trading cards. They’re collectibles and have the potential to increase in value over time, just like rookie baseball cards and pokemon cards. Another major attraction about buying NFT projects is that it enters you into an exclusive community only accessible by owning an NFT. In these communities you can make friends all over the world, attend virtual as well as in person events, and receive unique rewards, such as clothing, and other NFT’s. The metaverse has a large connection with the gaming community and there is a large overlap in the demographics of both groups. This is a group that is typically the younger generation that spends a lot of their time online already. For them, it can be a way to make friends and have fun without having to go outside. Am I a supporter of that aspect? No. I think the metaverse has many potential downsides, but many upsides as well, which is why big tech companies are investing billions of dollars in building infrastructure that could be shaping the newest version of the internet as we know it. We’ll see what happens.